The Ukrainian crisis and sour relations with Russia highlight the need to address the EU’s energy security issues. The recent EU Ypres summit decision might be an important step in this direction. In late May, the European Commission unveiled the new European Energy Security Strategy (EESS) with key recommendations on how to improve the EU’s […]

The success of the presidential elections and the clean victory of the pro-European candidate Petro Poroshenko will bring Ukraine closer to the West, but the conflict with Russia is likely to continue. The Ukrainian presidential elections took place on 25 May amid the most difficult political situation since the country gained independence from the Soviet […]

Sino-Russian energy deal will have profound economic consequences for global energy markets and will have an impact on relations between Russia and the West. On 21 May, Russia and China signed a decade-long negotiated deal on Russian natural gas exports to China valued at $400 billion. According to the agreement, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom will […]

Technological innovations and a positive regulatory framework are transforming the United States into a major energy player that is beginning to change the global energy outlook. This GRI series challenges the myth of the American decline. The US energy boom is not a coincidence. Rather, it is the product of three decades of systematic efforts to […]

With the situation in Ukraine entering its most difficult pre-election stage, the growing rift between Russia and the West is starting to affect everyday business. Following the ineffective Geneva Agreement and continuation of conflict in eastern Ukraine, the United States and the EU decided on April 29 to impose a fresh round of sanctions on […]

With recent events in Ukraine strongly affecting security relations between the West and Russia, both Brussels and Moscow are increasing efforts to reduce their mutual energy-financial dependency. European energy dependency is not a new thing. Despite aims to cut its energy imports, since 2000 the EU actually increased them by 10% (mainly by reducing domestic […]

With Russia’s economy in crisis and Central Asia coming in focus of Chinese energy strategy, the region is experiencing a long-term geopolitical shift. Central Asian (CA) states, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, have been part of the Russian interest sphere since the mid-19th century, first as part of Russian empire and later as the […]

With events rapidly unfolding, energy comes to the forefront in the East-West conflict over Ukraine. The past weeks in Ukraine have once again shown a close correlation between extreme political volatility and energy markets. As an immediate consequence of the Russian intervention in the Crimea, the price of crude oil has gone up by more […]

Ukraine could be on the brink of a wide-scale conflict that threatens to destabilize the region and worsen relations between Russia and the West. Ukraine is going through the worst political crisis since the country gained independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The first protest, which started in November over President […]

As Europe aims to diversify its energy sources, Russia is looking to the East to develop links with the more energy-prospective Asian markets. In June 2013, Russia’s oil giant Rosneft formalised a deal with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to supply the Chinese market with 26 billion barrels of oil over a 25 year […]